Trust Issues
by MyLittleBirdFlies
Summary: Some people trust too easily. Leo Valdez is not one of these people. A three-shot on the study of trust and friendship.
1. What Was Going On

**Here's a three shot! I hope you enjoy this complete mess of a story, 'Trust Issues'.**

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 **The Argo ll sailed high in** **the** **sky** , the sea glistening beneath the trireme. Hazel stood on deck, Frank pacing behind her. They honestly had no idea what was going on below deck, and they didn't even know if they _wanted_ to know.

"You okay?" Frank asked, finally stopping his pacing and coming next to her. Hazel nodded, even though her stomach felt like on of the gears on Leo's machines. She glanced at the stairs to go below deck. She almost wanted to go down there, tell the two of them to stop _fighting-_ but she knew they were doing it for good reason. However, what she didn't know, is how they were still fighting.

Jason was more calm and collected, and could really only fight for this long with an _enemy_. But Leo? Hazel wanted to shake her head at the thought, but couldn't bring herself too. She almost _wanted_ to take Jason's side. Leo had gotten himself into this, and Hazel couldn't find a reason at the moment to support him. She sighed. Frank put his hand on her back, trying to comfort her, but she knew as well as he did that there was no comforting to be done for the argument going on in the mess hall- only fact and lies.

Piper ran up the stairs, spotting Hazel and Frank almost immediately. "Guys, we need your help down here!" She was frantic, and a blind man could see something had happened- _something bad_. Hazel dashed to the mess hall, Frank at her tail. She gasped. Percy and Annabeth were holding hands at the back of the room, the images of Camp Half-Blood shining behind them. Some of the chairs had been knocked over, not to mention a few plates on the floor. Jason sat at the table on one of the chairs that had been lucky enough to be kept upright, his mouth in a tight line and brow creased in worry. He bolted up when he saw Piper come in, his blue eyes wide.

"What _happened_ in here?" Frank had just noticed the damage himself, and his eyes were darting around at the mess.

Jason sighed. "Leo and I had a disagreement."

Percy gave a hollow laugh. "Understatement. Remember what happened this morning?"

Hazel nodded. _Of course,_ she definitely remembered where this whole thing started- it was hard not to. During a run-of-the-mill monster battle- which had become more frequent- Jason had grabbed some of the Greek fire that Leo kept around for monsters and hurled it at a _venti,_ missing the thing entirely. Now, they had an _angry_ venti.

Wonderful.

Frank tried shooting it with arrows at first, however, the arrows simply passed through the spirit. "Hey, uh, guys? Any bright ideas? Annabeth?"

Annabeth grunted as she fended off a second venti with the help of Hazel. "Working on it!" she shouted.

"Oh, come on!" Leo yelled as the third, and final spirit tore his sails. He gripped the wheel tighter. "Hey, Sparky! Mind doing that thing you did back at the Grand Canyon?"

Jason rolled his eyes and slashed through the spirit. Having a silent celebration, Jason began to fly up to the next one.

Hazel stabbed the next. Annabeth smiled as she saw her boyfriend raise water from the sea below. He threw the mass of water at the last spirit. Percy put his hands on his hips and beamed.

"Percy!" Jason yelled. "It's still alive!"

"Are you kidding me, Grace?" he said as he pulled out his pen. "You couldn't let me have my moment?" In seconds, Riptide was in Percy's hand, ready to strike. Jason got close, ready to end the monster with the swing of his sword.

Almost.

This spirit shocked Jason, flinging him out of the air, onto the deck, 10 feet below. Ouch.

"Jason!" Piper screeched, as she ran over.

Annabeth bit her lip, her mind swirling. She _had_ to get the venti out of the air. "Leo! Mind giving some fire?"

Leo smiled. "That's what I'm here for, senora!"

Of course, this is when things went south.

The venti shot the deck, next to where Piper was tending to the son of Jupiter. Leo's eyes widened. _Crap,_ he thought.

"Leo! Now!" Annabeth yelled. Piper began trying to drag away Jason's unconscious body. Percy ran over to help. " _Leo_!"

"I-" Leo grasped for words. Frank notched an arrow.

"Come on!"

Leo shook his head. "I-I _can't_."

The arrow was released.

 _Boom_.

An explosion of golden dust.

* * *

Hazel definitely remembered. "Yeah, I do. So, what happened?"

Frank cleared his throat. "Better yet, where's Leo?"

Annabeth huffed. "Good question. Jason was the only one in here. We came in after we saw Leo burst out."

Piper crouched down next to her boyfriend. "What happened.

Jason shifted in his seat. "No idea- it was more a burst of anger." Percy tipped his head in understanding. "I'm sure you at least overheard, right?"

When he received a chorus of ' _no's_ ', he sighed.

" _Great_."

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 **Done with this chapter! Just a note, this is no way connected to Claustrophobic, if you've read that. I just had a lot of fun doing that, and decided to think, _what other problems could Leo have?_ Thus, Trust Issues was born.**

 **Just a side note: Probably my best battle scene. I'm usually pretty terrible.**


	2. What Happened

**Aaaannnnnd I am here with another chapter! Enjoy!**

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 **Jason cleared his throat.** "I guess I overreacted a little bit," he said. By now, Festus had been told to control the ship.

Hazel sat down on a bench, Frank picking up a turned-over chair to do the same. "Continue," Annabeth said.

Jason looked like a tomato, he was so red. "Okay, look. I didn't mean for this to happen. I just, I might've.." He shook his head. "It got to the point where I wasn't mad about what happened, but I was mad about how little I know about him."

Piper's eyes narrowed. "Jason! I thought we agreed that we-"

"I know! I know." He sighed. "Sorry."

Hazel coughed. "Wait, I'm confused. What about Leo?"

"Oh, right. This was before we got to Camp Jupiter," Annabeth stated. "None of us know a whole lot about Leo- not even Piper. We thought it was just the demigod thing, but we now we think it's _more._ " She looked over at Jason and Piper. "We agreed it was best to not pester him- we've all been through something."

Percy looked sad, and gave a fake pouty face. "You didn't tell me, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Jason?" Piper asked, gesturing for him to go on.

He looked away. "Then I-I brought him mom into it." He said that quicker, as if ashamed for his actions- which, he should be.

Of course, this was all minuscule at the look the crew was giving him. "I hope you're joking," Frank deadpanned.

Percy just walked out of the room. A few seconds later, a large bang was heard. Percy stiffly walked back and sat down. He sniffed. "Someone needs to fix that wall later."

Piper clenched her fists. "W-we should find him." Her voice sounded strangled. The others agreed.

* * *

 **Leo was drowning.** He knew that. He knew how he got there, of course. His ' _friends_ ' were holding him down right now. He could hear their muffled laughing, the joy radiating off of them.

Of course, this wasn't the first time someone broke his trust. It had happened before. Foster parents. Social workers. Friends. Teachers. Gangs. The list goes on. He understood people weren't exactly trustworthy, so he counted on his creations. Machines were always there for him.

What he didn't understand is why this kept happening. Day after day, year after year. His trust had to be gone by now. Was this his punishment for killing his mother?

Then, nothing. He was dead.

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 **You know those moments when a chapter is super short but you can't help but end on a cliffhanger? This is that moment.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! If you'd like more from me, go ahead and check out my profile.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns?**


	3. What Piper Found Out

**And, now, I present to you the final chapter of this three-shot. Hope you enjoy! Forgot to mention: this takes place in the BoO**

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 **Piper and the others** found him crying, and Piper froze in her shoes.

After searching the entire ship, they decided to check his room. It was weird he was in there, since he spent most of his time on deck or in the engine room. Hazel was the first to respond, practically sprinting towards the Latino. The shock was evident on his face, since he brow furrowed and he sat in pure confusion.

"Leo!" Hazel cried, throwing her arms around the boy.

Leo stiffly hugged back. "I-I'm sorry."

Jason shook his head. "You have nothing to be sorry for. If I wasn't such a jerk, we could-"

"No. No, no. This is my fault. I should've been better." Leo looked downwards, fiddling with his fingers.

Piper finally regained control of herself, rushing to hug the boy. "No, Leo, this isn't... why?" She was asking the fates, rather than Leo, but he responded to her anyways.

He buried his face in his hands. "I should've trusted you guys more. I should've used my powers- but I _didn't_. I failed."

Annabeth was starting to understand. One piece of the puzzle was put together. However, she had no idea how to put the rest together.

Percy was the next to speak. "You don't trust us?" He looked as if he had just been kicked.

Leo swallowed. Piper knew him- well, she knew him _enough_ to know he was remembering something. His past most likely wasn't pretty, and she could tell that he most definitely didn't want to talk about it.

"I-I don't know. I wish I could, but I don't think I can trust anymore." Piper started rubbing his back.

Annabeth nodded. "Okay, why can't you trust?" Her question was more curiosity than emotion.

A sob racked his body. "Every time I did I-" He began to cry once more.

Annabeth gave a pitied glance. "People broke your trust. I'm-"

Piper shot her a glare. Piper knew Leo _hated_ people being sorry for him.

"- I'm sure we can all forgive you."

Jason finally removed himself from the doorway. "Can I?" Everyone nodded, getting up to leave. Piper kissed Leo's head before getting up to go to the deck. Until, that is, her wrist was grabbed. Jason gave her a sad look. "Can you stay?" Piper smiled.

"Of course."

Jason approached the son of Hephestus. "I know this is gonna sound stupid, but _I'm_ stupid." He frowned. "I guess I never got the whole trust thing? I suppose since I was always supported by my cohort, I never-" He sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, I was dumb for yelling at you."

Leo nodded, and then his eyes glazed over. "Once, some boys from my foster home tried to drown me in the bathtub. I trusted them."

Piper was on the verge of tears. Actually, she was surprised she hadn't teared up before. Piper went to sit back down.

"Hey, Leo?" She didn't wait for a response. "You lied. You can trust. You trusted us enough to go on that crazy quest for Hera. You trusted us enough to build this ship. Heck, even you even came back from Ogygia for us- even though the girl of your dreams was there. Even though we could've been tricking you the whole time. You, Leo, are the kindest and most trustworthy person I've ever met."

Jason smiled. "I also wasn't planning on drowning you anytime soon." Piper was about to smack him for the insensitive joke, but then Leo began to laugh.

"Really, Sparky? I thought you were going to electrocute me. But, hey, if you want to convince Percy to help you drown me, by all means, go ahead."

Piper sighed with content. Leo just hadn't known how much he actually trusted people.

And, that was okay, because they were all here for each other.

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 **I'd like to thank you guys for commenting and favoriting- it really is what helps me find time to write. Honestly, if you post your stories on a website, or even in real-life, feedback helps a whole lot.**

 **Anyways, before I get too sappy, how was this three-shot?**

 **DISCLAIMER: HAhAHAhahAHa... I wish.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns?**


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